ALCS BLOG / From Tigers' first homer to their last: a series review

Published 7:00 am, Monday, October 16, 2006

Photo: Darryl Bush

Image 1of/3

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 3

athletics_alcs4_db29 Eric Chavez makes a tough play in the bottom of the sixth inning getting Ivan Rodriguez to ground out. The Oakland Athletics play the Detroit Tigers in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series. Event on Saturday, October 14, 2006 at Comerica Park in Detroit, Michigan. Darryl Bush / The Chronicle Ran on: 10-15-2006
Milton Bradley (right) is congratulated by Jay Payton after scoring the A's second run in the first inning on Eric Chavez's double. less

athletics_alcs4_db29 Eric Chavez makes a tough play in the bottom of the sixth inning getting Ivan Rodriguez to ground out. The Oakland Athletics play the Detroit Tigers in Game 4 of the American League ... more

Photo: Darryl Bush

Image 2 of 3

Athletics_0003_db.JPG
Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland is congratulated by Detroit Tiger general manager. David Dombrowski, right, after the Tigers swept the series defeating the Oakland Athletics vs. Detroit Tigers in the 4th game of ALCS, at Comerica Park in Detroit, MI, on Saturday, October 14, 2006. The A's lost game and the series 4-0. 10/14/06
Darryl Bush / The Chronicle ** roster (cq) Ran on: 10-16-2006
Eric Chavez throws out Tigers catcher Ivan Rodriguez in the sixth inning of Game 4.
Ran on: 10-16-2006
Eric Chavez throws out Tigers catcher Ivan Rodriguez in the sixth inning of Game 4. less

Athletics_0003_db.JPG
Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland is congratulated by Detroit Tiger general manager. David Dombrowski, right, after the Tigers swept the series defeating the Oakland Athletics vs. ... more

Photo: Darryl Bush

Image 3 of 3

athletics_alcs4_db44 Frank Thomas watches the celebration on the field as the dugout is packed up.
The Oakland Athletics lost to the Detroit Tigers in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series 6-3. Oakland was eliminated in the loss. Event on Saturday, October 14, 2006 at Comerica Park in Detroit, Michigan. Darryl Bush / The Chronicle Ran on: 10-16-2006
Eric Chavez throws out Tigers catcher Ivan Rodriguez in the sixth inning of Game 4.
Ran on: 10-16-2006
Eric Chavez throws out Tigers catcher Ivan Rodriguez in the sixth inning of Game 4. less

athletics_alcs4_db44 Frank Thomas watches the celebration on the field as the dugout is packed up.
The Oakland Athletics lost to the Detroit Tigers in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series 6-3. ... more

Photo: Darryl Bush

ALCS BLOG / From Tigers' first homer to their last: a series review

1 / 3

Back to Gallery

During the American League Championship Series, Chronicle columnist Bruce Jenkins reported from Oakland and Detroit with live, in-game blogs. Here is what he wrote at some key points in the action. For all his blogs from the playoffs, go to SFGate.com.

Game 1

Third inning: You know you're in the big leagues when a pitcher takes some pretty decent stuff to the mound, sails through the first eight hitters, makes one mistake and the No. 9 guy makes him pay. Barry Zito, stifling the Tigers with a nice blend of location fastballs and 12-to-6 curves, threw an over-the-middle fastball to Brandon Inge with two out in the third inning and he hammered it into the left-field seats, just inside the foul pole, for a solo homer.

It got worse, although Zito should have escaped the inning without any further damage. ... He got a relatively routine grounder -- especially for the brilliant third baseman, Eric Chavez -- out of Magglio Ordoñez. It wasn't a particularly tough play for Chavez, moving slightly to his left, but he couldn't come up with the ball and Ordoñez was very generously credited with a run-scoring single, giving Detroit a 2-0 lead.

Fourth inning: The A's fans won't want to hear this, but that was some bit of pitching from the Tigers' Nate Robertson.

He got into immediate trouble in the fourth inning when he walked Frank Thomas and Jay Payton cranked a double off the left-field wall (Thomas, naturally, reaching only third base). What happened next was sheer mastery.

Chavez struck out, swinging, on a fabulous curveball that broke from Piedmont to Livermore. Nick Swisher, surprised by a sizzling high fastball, couldn't catch up to it and whiffed, as well. And Marco Scutaro, a man the A's like to see in these situations, watched a low fastball snake past him for a called strike three.

Fifth inning: For one night, anyway, the A's failure to cash in has become a nasty habit. With two runners on and nobody out in the fifth, Mark Kotsay grounded into a routine double play, and it's 5-0 Detroit through five.

Ninth inning: We have reached the bitter end. A great many fans have left the building. On a night characterized by A's futility, this is a saga of grown men stranded. They were out there, all over the bases, but as we head to the ninth inning, the A's only run has scored on a grounder back to the mound.

Final: Tigers 5, A's 1.

Game 2

Fourth inning: We all know how well the Milton Bradley experiment has worked out here. Tonight, he is merely the entire Oakland show through three innings. Aside from his run-scoring single in the first, he slammed a two-run homer off Justin Verlander in the third after Kotsay's second double of the night, this one an off-field shot down the left-field line.

As we speak, however, Esteban Loaiza is on the ropes. And as we speak further, the Tigers have taken the lead. ... Craig Monroe's single to center scored a run for 3-2, and then came another agonizingly disappointing play involving Chavez. ... This time, left-handed hitter Alexis Gomez hit a little squibber to the same area. Chavez went for the ball, but didn't anticipate a low, odd-spinning hop and the ball kicked off his glove into shallow center field (again, it was ruled a single). Two runs scored, and when Inge followed with a sacrifice fly to center, the Tigers had a 5-3 lead and the Coliseum crowd was back in a funk.

Sixth inning: Coming into tonight's game, Gomez couldn't possibly forget his last home run in the big leagues. It was the only one.

Now he has two.

Loaiza was cruising through the top of the sixth, retiring the first two batters, when Monroe lined a solid double to right-center. Enter Gomez, inserted into the DH slot by manager Jim Leyland. ... The 28-year-old Gomez had a cup of coffee with the 2002 Royals, a tall vanilla latte with the Royals again two years later, then a caramel frappuccino with last year's Tigers, the three stints totaling all of 55 at-bats. ... Gomez lashed at that most inviting pitch and belted a two-run homer to right, giving Detroit a 7-3 lead and turning Loaiza's night into an official pile of junk.

Ninth inning: Huston Street gave up a solo homer to Curtis Granderson, giving Detroit an 8-5 lead and a very healthy chunk of breathing room.

It was disturbing to see Street lit up so decisively by a .260 hitter, but in a way, Granderson represents the Tigers. While they might not be the most disciplined bunch of hitters around, they're all dangerous, right down to the bottom of the order.

... Thomas could only marvel at the convergence of events that led to his final at-bat: Two outs, bases loaded, bottom of the ninth, A's down by three. "What a shot at vindication," he said, not needing to be reminded that he remains hitless in the series. "I felt great. Cut fastball, away (from reliever Todd Jones), just got a little bit under it." Final: Tigers 8, A's 5.

Game 3

Third inning: The A's season is hanging by a thread. Rich Harden has all the command of a guy making his first spring-training start after a five-year layoff. It's a miracle the A's are only down, 2-0, through the first three innings. ...

The game-time temperature was a nasty 42 degrees, but it can't be a terrible day to pitch, because Kenny Rogers is chugging along just fine.

Sixth inning: Rogers just threw one of his nastiest pitches of this bitterly cold afternoon. It was a two-strike curveball to Bradley, who never had a chance as he swung in futility at a ball dipping down and in. I wouldn't bet against Rogers, or the Tigers, at this point. ... It's feeling like a Detroit sweep right now, and this excited, towel-waving crowd seems to sense it.

Ninth inning: There certainly was no letup today in manager Leyland's golden touch. He got two walks, a single and a stolen base out of his two new additions to the lineup, Omar Infante and Ramon Santiago. ...

Each day brings a different brand of misery for the A's. This time it was the masterful Rogers, a man inspired, summoning once again the very best he had to offer after a postseason career of failure and shame. All of a sudden, he's unbeatable, and he knows it, and the A's seemed to sense that early on.

Final:Tigers 3, A's 0.

Game 4

Third inning: So far, the A's couldn't have hand-picked a better starter than Dan Haren for today. His split-fingered fastball is dropping right off the table, a nasty proposition for right-handed and lefty hitters, and through three innings, he has struck out Ordoñez, Carlos Guillen, Inge, Granderson and Monroe as the A's maintain their 2-0 lead.

Fifth inning: The sunshine is gone in Detroit. Dark clouds are gathering in the distance. The game feels a little different, too, now that the Tigers have broken through against Haren.

The A's had a 3-0 lead entering the fifth, thanks to Payton's solo homer in the fourth, when Inge led off with chopper down the third-base line. Chavez charged the ball and fielded it, but his off-balance throw to first was wide, allowing Inge to take second.

The play was correctly ruled a single and an error, but for the third time in this series, Chavez had come up empty on a play he usually makes. ...

(Later,) Monroe, badly humbled by a pair of strikeouts earlier in the game, hit a shot down the left-field line, hooking away from Payton and becoming even more difficult to track down due to the right-to-left wind. It barely evaded Payton's grasp for a double, and suddenly the A's lead was 3-2.

Sixth inning: Just like that, Haren's magical stuff deserted him. In a stadium growing increasingly frigid, fans bundled up against the chill, Haren didn't survive the sixth inning as the Tigers tied the game.

It's remarkable how quickly things can change. It was obvious from the end of the fifth that Haren was beginning to lose it -- even the Tigers' final out, a liner to second by Placido Polanco, was hit hard -- and Ordoñez opened the sixth with a sizzling, hooking home run down the left-field line, barely clearing the fence and leaving the park in a very big hurry.

Ninth inning: Still, the Tigers are alive. Both Monroe and Polanco (does he ever go away?) have singled, putting runners at first and second. Ordoñez, one of the league leaders in Bad Haircuts but a tough customer at the plate, is stepping in. You wonder how long Street can survive out there.

It's a shot to left. It's gone! The Tigers are going to the World Series. Final: Tigers 6, A's 3.

Postgame: Bradley is the last Oakland player coming off the field, in a slow walk. He's pointing to someone on the Tigers, as if to say, "Job well done." He's pausing now, and I've got my eye on him, because he was the Oakland A's today. Now he has been acknowledged, but Bradley is hanging around, all by himself, outside the A's dugout.

Wow. It appears that Leyland is the man Bradley was acknowledging. Now Leyland is coming over to pay his respects to the A's. What a class act. My God, he is far and away the best manager in baseball today. Nobody seems even close to him right now. Leyland knows the feeling of heartbreak, and he knows how the A's feel right now, and he has left the madness of his own team's triumph to commiserate with Oakland.